Operation Fat Cat and Chinese

Meet Midnight…

This is my fat cat.  She is about 10 years old.

I recently took her in to the vet for a teeth cleaning.

She was unable to have the surgery because she is overweight.  Actually, she is 40% overweight, so sadly, I need to call her obese.  The risks of surgery with that excess weight and her wheezing breathing problems were greater than the current benefit and need to clean her teeth.  Also, the vet found a heart murmur.

So Midnight will be waiting 6 months to have the teeth cleaning.  If you are not familiar with teeth cleaning in pets, they put them under anesthesia for the procedure so there are more risks than a human teeth cleaning.

Midnight needs to lose 4 pounds total, but only about 0.5-1 pound in 6 months.  The process for a cat is much slower than in people.  I may be certified in adult weight management though the Commission for Dietetic Registration, and some of the physiological principles apply, but I am not a cat weight loss expert.  Since I have some idea, I got started with diet and exercise changes.

The cat is relatively lazy, as we would expect with a 10 year old cat.  We started out by purchasing a variety of toys for her to play with.  We did not know what she would like, so we tried multiple things.  This is a cat nip toy she can kick around.  She is not too interested in this.

 

This is a fish on a pole.  She was not too interested with it attached to a stationary object, but if Ryan or myself are on the other end, she will play for hours.  This has been the most helpful tool so far.

She likes the idea of this toy, but I do not think she really gets it yet.  I am still hopeful she will want to play with this more because she can self entertain and does not need one of us to be at the other end of the toy.

Then In placed her on a monitored meal plan, not a diet.  Before I would fill the bowl and leave it all day.  She never ate it all, but I also had no clue how much she was eating.  Also, I give her not “junk” food, but not top of the line.  I heard Hill’s was not the tastiest, but it was the only one I had access too.  I bought the light kind.  I calculated intake needs based on her desirable body weight as per the vet.  This translated to 2/3 cup daily.  I decided to mix her Purina with the hills, in equal 1/3 cup amounts.  Plus, I give 1/2 can Fancy Feast a day, which was approved by my vet.  It is mostly water, so it is low in calories.  I also am now on to 2 meals a day, but she can still craze.  I give half in the morning, and she can eat throughout the day.  Then I give the rest at night, since she prefers to eat nocturnally, as she is a cat.  She still does not eat all the food, but it is much more controlled.

As for the current results.  She started at 12.5 pounds, and some how at the next weigh in was 14.  I think it was a fluke, so I will be checking again this weekend.  I plan to weigh her once a week.  I really hope I am successful with this.  I want my cat to live a long healthy life.  I can’t believe I let Midnight become a fat cat.

Speaking of feeding, Ryan and I finally made it to the Chinese restaurant on the island.  That’s right, there is a Portuguese version of a Chinese restaurant.  I was excited to see so many options on the menu, and that the menu was also listed in English.  I assume there is a Chinese restaurant because there are quite a few Chinese families on the island.  I am still not sure about the history behind that, but I am sure there is an interesting tale.

It looks a little run down outside,

but inside it was nicer than I expected.

No Chinese beer on the menu, so we went with Danish.

Ryan had sweet and sour soup to start.

We also ordered spring rolls.  Good thing I cut first before biting because there was ground beef inside.  I gave it to Ryan.

I had sweet and sour shrimp for my entree.

With white rice of course.  Nope, no brown rice here.

Ryan had just some broccoli with garlic sauce, because he had the soup and spring roll also.

Overall it was not too bad, but not the best either.  I would go back simply because it is the only choice for Chinese, other than cooking it at home.  I am glad we finally gave this place a try.

When we got home, we tried out this crazy sugar pop with popping candy because it looked too funny to not try.  It reminded me of something I may have eaten at summer camp, and in fact, I think I did have something like this before when I was a kid.

Oh, and we are so excited that this came in the mail.  I love this show.

 

QUESTIONS:  Have you ever had to put a pet on a “diet”?  What is your favorite Chinese dish?